phade

Hey guys I finally bought my first Vette about a month ago. I picked it up for real cheap cause the guy said the injectors need to be replaced. Maybe more than that though i think. When I start the car it starts right up, smells real rich. But after about 2-3 minutes it starts smoking REAL bad(white teary eyed smoke). If I let it run for 10-20 minutes in park it wont stop smoking until I get in and drive it, then the smoke goes away but still smells bad. When I let it sit in my driveway and i try and give it some gas, it smokes up my whole neighborhood. Could it be a blown head gasket? I have a 73 Charger, with none of these crazy sensors everywhere, maybe a sensor? HELP?!

vinnies87

Injectors bad
Valve seals
head gasket
all possibilities
Get FSM and start working thru.
Check oil for anti-freeze
Check exhaust
Use search function for info

GIMMESOME

The good news is you got it cheap.First,drain your oil and tell us what you see.White smoke usually means water/coolant in the combustion chamber,and this generaly shows up in the oil.But there's more ways for it to get in there then just the head gaskets.Do that,and report back,good luck.

AGENT 86

Are you loosing any coolant ?? Is the ''service engine soon" light on ??
Pressure test the cooling system if you are losing coolant. If it passes the test, start looking at excessive fuel delivery.
Here's a little help from my manual.
http://members.shaw.ca/corvette86/No...it%20Check.pdf
http://members.shaw.ca/corvette86/Fu...mDiagnosis.pdf
http://members.shaw.ca/corvette86/Co...rt%20Valve.pdf
http://members.shaw.ca/corvette86/Co...0View%2086.pdf

phade

replaced oil and no water in the oil, that was the first thing i checked, definately getting a lil gas in the oil. Is there a fuel injector rebuild kit out there? The service engine soon light is NOT on, but when I bought it-it was low on coolant, but not since i topped it off. Injector replacement = bad news. Those things are $79.00 a peice! Whe I 1st bought the car and the guy started it up, it was an eirie grey and black smoke-now its just white, until i start driving. Excessive fuel delivery....hmmm, sounds on the money to me. I know rich when I smell it-and my eyeballs fall out. I do know I have to replace the valve seals-there is a lil leakage in one of the cylinders, but would that cause it to smoke out my neighborhood? Now I need to find out more about the fuel delivery components and what they entail that might be causing this. Thanks for your help guys-I need it!

BADDUCK

You don't want to waste time trying to service your own injectors. Buy new or rebuilt and tested. Do a search lots of injector threads.

Another thing to check is see if your cats are clogged up.

BTW fill out your profile so we know what you have.

phade

With the diagnostics diagrams you posted, it sounds to me like the car is acting like the cold start sensor is not "shutting off" -until I drive the car..? Could be a number of things. Now to figure out how to test it.

Muffin

From the top, pull the injectors, send them to Rick at Cruzin Performance. Let him rebuild and balance for about half the dollars for a set from Summit. I also think a compression test is in order.

Yellow2015

You sound like you know your way around a wrench so I would highly suggest you getting the FSM for your year. It's the absolute rosetta stone for working on these cars. Tests, tools you name it, it's in there. Check out e-bay for a set. Two books, mechanical and electrical. They are worth their weight in gold.

phade

Right on, thank you all for your help.

CentralCoaster

What is the timing? If it's retarded it won't burn the fuel and will smoke bad and idle like ****. Even if the timing checks ok, it may not be accurate, the harmonic balancer on these often falls apart and slips which moves the timing mark way off. Pull the plugs and turn the engine over with a ratchet to find TDC and then pull the distributor cap, see where the rotor points to.

Also pull the vacuum line to the fuel pressure regulator (passenger side behind plenum) after running the engine and see if there's any fuel in there. If it is, the diaphram is split and dumping extra fuel into your intake.

phade

what should the compression range be for ok rings?

rick lambert

Compression differs from engine to engine, depending on maintenance ect. What you're looking for is one or two with substantially lower readings, alot of times two cylinders next to each other with low readings indicate a bad head gasket. I think all cylinders should be within 10% of each other.

phade

I have fuel in the intake from the diaphragm....anyone know where i can get one cheap?

airblaine

This fella may have fuel problems, but there is no way a fuel problem is causing all the smoke or steam to fill his neighborhood. do a compression test, you are getting coolant or alot of oil into a cylinder.

Fuel injectors are 380.00 for a set of eight at summit racing. worry about injectors after you get your heads rebuilt.

When I did a compression check on my '88' with 47000 miles all cylinders were at 130psi +-5psi

CentralCoaster

Anywhere from 140-200psi is normal. It depends on other things, like your starter, battery, etc. But they should all be within 10% of each other. The later cylinders tend to drop off as the battery gets weaked from cranking it over so much.

So after a full test, I recharge the battery then test the compression again in the opposite order.

phade

Well, I replaced the fuel filter today because it just stopped starting up. I pulled some gas out of it for my lawn mower and it frired up for a few minutes-then went dead. Thought it was the filter from rubbish in the low fuel tank, its on reserve right now. Still wont start-like no fuel-but I can hear the fuel pump humm. Looks like I have to pull the whole intake off just to replace that diaphragm.

phade

No coolant in the oil. The regulator diaphragm was shot. there was so much fuel in the plenum it was incredible. Fuel was even in the brake booster sucktion line! Would a bad regulator diaphragm shoot that much fuel? And would that cause it to smoke that much?

CentralCoaster

Once the diaphram tears, all bets are off, the motor sucks in a ton of fuel, runs like sheit, spits out whitish raw fuel smoke, and your girl gets pregnant.

phade

uh-oh, what do you mean by pregnant?